Journal Archives

There seems to be an attempt by some to say that the problem with society is always the "inherently bad" guys who aren't liberal, progressive white males.

This is not the issue. Privilege is diffuse, almost invisible if you aren't looking for it. It's designed to be that way so that any challenge against it can be dismissed as hysteria. What is at issue is not that there is a mass of bad white guys going around doing evil deeds; although such people do exist.

No, what is really at issue is the tiny increments of privilege expended by every person of the privileged classes every waking second of the day. Little things that you don't necessarily notice aggregate together with others to create a massive social, legal and political influence.

Not being consistently viewed as a sexual object is something men benefit from every single day of their lives. Not being profiled as a criminal because of their skin color is a benefit white persons possess every day they are alive.

What is at issue is not that just that this privilege exists but that those who benefit from it the most are unwilling to admit that such benefit exists. Most privilege is not conscious, be it gifting or receiving. So when we talk about the privileged white male, that is not an attack on you personally as an independent human being. It is an attempt to point out that at the very point where one is unaware of his or her privilege is precisely the point at which privilege is MOST effective.

Power is most efficient when it conceals both its mechanisms as well as its consequences. When a person of a truly privileged class denies these benefits, power is multiplied and the issue is made worse.

I could write dozens more pages on the subject but I don't have time right now. But I felt this needed to be said in light of recent posts.

If these were caring entities, they would look out on their underpaid workers and feel sadness and regret. And they would be willing to shoulder the extra burden of higher wages in order to serve as proper humanitarians. After all, dipping into profit is the least they could do in such times.

They would see their workers not as expendables to be shucked of labor value and then tossed away but instead as the vitality, the very life-blood, of corporate success. Each business would be an epic machine consisting of all the workers and even managers and managing boards. It would not be a battle between the "lower" workers and managers and the "higher" managing boards and executives. That thought would simply not exist in a caring environment.

The failure of corporations to act fiscally responsible, the collapse of once great corporate giants would lead to speeches of executives begging for forgiveness and admitting their mistakes. Stepping down to let someone else try to do a better job. Allowing the workers, who possess almost no fault for such collapses, to take control and dictate their needs and will.

These men and women would never take bonuses or pay increases while workers suffer. That would simply be unacceptable for anyone with a conscience.

But this is not how corporations work. These executives and board members sleep very well at night even though they are vampiring the product of worker labor in amounts that boggle the mind. They do not care about the insultingly low wages. They are not concerned with atoning for their mistakes. They seek only to act meek when it comes time to be saved by the protective hand of government. They are the real welfare kings and queens; a projection of astronomical blindness on their part.

They don't give a damn about us. And that is the single most damaging thing anyone needs to know before they write off corporate America, really corporate globalism, as a sham designed to enslave the masses to benefit the few.

These leaders of industry are bastards lacking even the most minuscule desire to partake from the great drink of brotherhood and sisterhood for fear that their discerning pallets might become confused. Might stray away from the mechanization of pulverizing workers down to numbers, dollar signs and decimals.

People would see me walking by their house and go about their business. Any neighborhood watch would be suspicious of me up to the point when they realize I'm white. After that, they might tell me to hurry home to make sure I'm not mugged by any people of color.

We are not all Trayvon Martin. The world we live in simply does not allow for such coldly comfortable fantasy.

• Those who invoke "stand your ground" to avoid prosecution have been extremely successful. Nearly 70 percent have gone free.

• Defendants claiming "stand your ground" are more likely to prevail if the victim is black. Seventy-three percent of those who killed a black person faced no penalty compared to 59 percent of those who killed a white.

• The number of cases is increasing, largely because defense attorneys are using "stand your ground" in ways state legislators never envisioned. The defense has been invoked in dozens of cases with minor or no injuries. It has also been used by a self-described "vampire" in Pinellas County, a Miami man arrested with a single marijuana cigarette, a Fort Myers homeowner who shot a bear and a West Palm Beach jogger who beat a Jack Russell terrier.

• People often go free under "stand your ground" in cases that seem to make a mockery of what lawmakers intended. One man killed two unarmed people and walked out of jail. Another shot a man as he lay on the ground. Others went free after shooting their victims in the back. In nearly a third of the cases the Times analyzed, defendants initiated the fight, shot an unarmed person or pursued their victim — and still went free.

• Similar cases can have opposite outcomes. Depending on who decided their cases, some drug dealers claiming self-defense have gone to prison while others have been set free. The same holds true for killers who left a fight, only to arm themselves and return. Shoot someone from your doorway? Fire on a fleeing burglar? Your case can swing on different interpretations of the law by prosecutors, judge or jury.

• A comprehensive analysis of "stand your ground" decisions is all but impossible. When police and prosecutors decide not to press charges, they don't always keep records showing how they reached their decisions. And no one keeps track of how many "stand your ground" motions have been filed or their outcomes.

Is it possible that Martin punched Zimmerman in the face while not breaking any skin on his knuckles? Yes
Is it possible that Martin's head was smashed against the pavement in such a manner that his life was at risk even though the injuries to the back of his head were minor? Yes.
Is it possible that Martin assaulted Zimmerman despite the fact that he had no outside motivation to do so beyond the fact that he was being stalked? Yes

Is it possible Zimmerman, the man trained in MMA fighting, carrying a gun, following a minor through a dark neighborhood who he verbally assumed was a criminal, was merely a victim of an enraged teenager? Yes.

But what are the odds of any of that being true? Pretty fucking low. What are the odds that the man who ignored dispatch, who carried a firearm despite neighborhood watch regulations, who stalked an innocent teenager through a dark neighborhood, who didn't go to the hospital despite reporting serious injury to his person, who is trained in MMA fighting, who conspired to conceal the true extent of his personal wealth from the state, shot Martin because he was a hooded black kid and his lizard brain wanted to nab a supposed burglar?

The skunkworks team in Affalterbach knows how to make AMG-branded Benzes the most-intimidating-sounding cars on the planet—in particular, the sounds of its 5.5-liter twin-turbo V-8 and naturally aspirated 6.2-liter V-8 are exalted hymns in the church of car enthusiasm. (Listen to us run nine AMGs through a tunnel in Detroit.) But with the introduction of the 2014 SLS AMG Electric Drive, Mercedes-Benz AMG has introduced its first truly stealth supercar. (We have to ask: Hasn’t parent company Daimler learned its lesson with the Electric Drive moniker? We digress.)

Not only is the electric supercar AMG’s quietest model by a long way, but it’s also the brand’s most powerful. Electrification provides the SLS with 740 hp and 738 lb-ft of torque, with all the twist available from a standstill. The electricity is generated by four contact permanent-magnet synchronous electric motors that spin to 13,000 rpm and through a so-called axially arranged transmission. In comparison, the new-for-2013 petroleum-powered SLS AMG GT churns out 583 hp and 489 lb-ft. Benz claims the electrified SLS will hit 62 mph in 3.9 seconds before topping out at an electronically limited 155.

Power is routed through what Mercedes is calling AMG Torque Dynamics; this provides the car with selective all-wheel drive and allows each wheel to be independently powered or braked to assist in handling maneuvers. The system can be switched among comfort, sport, and sport plus modes. The motors aren’t located in the hubs, saving unsprung weight, but each corner does feature carbon-ceramic brake discs measuring 15.8 inches in front and 14.2 inches in the rear. Power is stored in a liquid-cooled 60-kWh, 1208-pound lithium-ion battery pack developed by Mercedes-AMG and Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains of Brixworth in the U.K.—these are the people responsible for Mercedes’ kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) in Formula 1. The battery pack consists of 12 modules, each made up of 72 lithium-ion cells—that’s 864 cells in total, if you’re keeping score at home—that, like all hybrids, receive a charge under deceleration. When static, the SLS Electric Drive can be charged in three hours via an optional 22-kW quick-charge station; plugging it straight into an unmodified wall outlet, a full charge takes 20 hours. Once the electric SLS is full of juice, Mercedes claims a maximum range of 155 miles, although honking on the thing no doubt rapidly decreases that number.

Rarer than any metal, any mineral, so rare that if you scan the entire earth, all six million billion billion kilos or 13,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 pounds of our planet, you would find only one ounce of it?

What is so rare it has never been seen directly, because if you could get enough of it together, it would self-vaporize from its own radioactive heat?

What is this stuff that can't be seen or found? Well, here's a hint. It's sitting modestly in a lower row in the Periodic Table, down on the lower right, in a box marked "At."

The Obama administration will not be allowed to terminate a lawsuit by asserting that a civil argument would risk exposing national secrets, a federal judge ruled Monday in what has already been called an important advance for civil liberties advocates.

The suit, known as Jewel vs. National Security Agency, was originally filed in 2008 by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and a group of AT&T customers who claimed Bush administration officials had conducted an “illegal and unconstitutional program of dragnet communications surveillance” by operating warrantless surveillance on US citizens.

Attention has re-focused on the case in recent weeks after fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked NSA documents revealing the government’s widespread domestic and foreign monitoring of telephone and Internet activity.

US District Judge Jeffrey White in San Francisco, California refused to allow the Obama administration to end the lawsuit by citing the ‘state secrets’ privilege. By invoking that privilege, the EFF argued, the federal government hoped to prove widespread warrantless surveillance is not subject to judicial review.

I was skeptical until about a week ago when I decided that they couldn't possibly be any worse for you than a regular tobacco cigarette. After reading up about the ingredients in the pre-vapor mixture, it seemed I was right and promptly purchased an NJOY brand e-cig.

It's quite a miraculous little device and provides a relatively safe way of administering nicotine to a user. You can still go through the process of "smoking" (which is actually called vaping) from a cigarette and for many smokers this, the smoking ritual itself, is one of the most important elements of addiction. Maintaining this routine was certainly important for me.

I've also tried various forms of chew in the past and consistently took in waaay to much nicotine over the course of only an hour or so and then would be sick for the rest of the day.

Anyway, I think this provides an outlet for smokers to continue the smoking ritual while also avoiding some really horrific chemicals that exist in standard cigarette smoke.